TENTHOFF FAMILY VACATION

I come from a small nuclear family; it was just me and my sister and our mom. But what I did have was a whole bunch of cousins, nine on my father's side alone. And while my sister and I were the youngest of the group, we all spent a lot of time together growing up and are all still really close.

Ted and I were the first of all our siblings to have kids but his sister and brothers followed suit super quickly, so we have gone from no kids to seven cousins in just 5 years:

William, 3; Christopher, 1 week; Andrew, 5;  Justin, 1;  Kyle, 2; Jason, 2; and Elizabeth, 4

Every summer the Tenthoff clan goes to South Carolina for a week in the summer. Why, you might be asking, as it seems like someone found the hottest, hardest-to-get-to place on the East Coast and chose it for the family vacation. I don't really have an answer for that, though I will say that after a few drinks (so at about noon) every day the topic of discussion seemed to trend towards whether or not there was somewhere closer than a 14-hour drive that we could convene instead.

But I digress. The great joy of the vacation, what makes it worth the drive (although it doesn't seem like it when we hit Richmond and realize we've been in the car for 6 hours and have 8 more to go) is getting to hang out with our siblings and watching the cousins grow up together.

Yes, it's corny, but it's also true. Even I, with ice water in my veins and a stony cold heart, have been known to smile at the sight of the kids all together:

Andrew, Elizabeth, and William Playing Candyland

Andrew and Elizabeth Walking Hand in Hand to the Beach

Happy Justin

Kyle with Helicopter

Storytime

Kyle and Andrew

Nikki and Justin

Jason and Anne

Elizabeth

William, Jason, Andrew and Elizabeth

I realize that this post may be giving you the mistaken impression that I actually spent any time with the kids. Oh, no, indeed. I admired the cousinly love from afar and had the sense to leave the room as soon as a fight over whose helicopter was whose broke out. My time was spent like this:

Me Sunbathing, Topless

That's right, I took it upon myself to bring sexy back to South Carolina, whether South Carolina (or my mother- and stepfather-in-law) were interested in said sexy. But who cares? By the time Friday rolled around, I was so relaxed I looked like this:

Me, Actually Relaxed

Of course, by then it was just about time to get back in the car for the 14 hour trek home. Good times.

XOXOXO

ABC